[SOLVED] How do I zero write the hdd with SLAX?

[jstan3d2]

Ok so I chose to use SLAX and it's all I have now. My goal is to zero write or low level format the hdd on my computer. So I use the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda1 command and it comes back with a message that there isn't any free space and it doesn't write zeros like I want. Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong and get me on track please? Thanks....

[jayd512]

You were close... Try this one:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M

It may take a while, as it writes a 0 to every bit of data.

If you're looking to wipe it for security reasons (selling/giving the drive), you can write random data instead of 0s:

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=1M

NOTE!
Make sure that /dev/sda is, indeed, the drive that you want to wipe!


*EDIT*
Just re-read the original post... if needed, replace sda with hda.